By David S. Zapp, Esq.
When a major narcotics trafficker was recently sentenced to ten years in federal court in Florida, most people were aghast. How could this be when so many people much less guilty were serving ten to twenty years in prison? Maybe it was the 130 million dollars that the defendant turned over to the United States government. You think? This defendant will get out in 8 and a half years, and enjoy the rest of the money he did not turn over. And who says crime does not pay? I say good for him and good for the Government. The government has finally come of age, thinking with its head not its heart.
In the beginning, the war on drugs, would not have permitted this plea bargain. The “war on drugs” was a moral crusade and it was unthinkable that prosecutors would do business with drug dealers, and that is how they would see it, consorting with drug traffickers. Prosecutors referred to these defendants as “merchants of death” and agents constantly asked me “how could you possibly represent ‘these people?’” This question seems almost quaint now. If you are going to plea bargain, offer serious money. Plea-bargaining can now be a win-win situation.
And do it soon, because the age of generous plea bargains is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. I have a feeling that things are going to change in the Eastern District of New York. They have new people in place now that are going to exercise more control than ever before and the sentences may become steeper and more uniform because these supervising prosecutors unlike the line prosecutors are not emotionally invested in the defendants. They are looking at the defendants as those former “merchants of death” and whatever consideration the prosecutors give these folks will depend exclusively on their conduct and the quality of their assistance nothing else. So when a lawyer tells you he is a “friend” of the prosecutor, take it with a grain of salt.